ABSTRACT
Knowledge of pavement structural condition is desirable throughout a pavement’s service life. Although the as-built pavement condition in terms of bearing capacity is most critical for the evolution of its future performance, it still remains challenging for pavement engineers to investigate any dependencies of the field assessment process on the pavement design. The latter becomes even more significant when the assumptions and loading principles used for material characterization during the design, differ from those that can be implemented in the field through the common utilization of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) systems, including among others, the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD). On these grounds, the present research study considers field evaluation challenges of a new asphalt pavement structure of a heavy-duty motorway designed according to a robust international analytical design method. In particular, standardized Asphalt Concrete (AC) materials were assumed for the asphalt base and binder courses, whose stiffness characteristics were determined for the design analysis through the two-point bending test on trapezoidal specimens. Contrariwise, NDT testing was performed in the field and cylindrical cores were also extracted to assess material performance in the laboratory through the uniaxial compression test mode. The analysis for the pavement evaluation follows mechanistic perspectives demonstrating how to address potential limitations of pavement structural evaluation.
